Arthur Weasley and The Consequences of Social Media
by zcross1997
Summary: 2013, Arthur Weasley has discovered a Muggle artifact called an iPhone. On there, he finds Muggles use social media to talk to another. He soon finds that not all Muggles are as fascinating or friendly as he hoped.
1. Chapter 1

Part 1: The Profile

Arthur Weasley

muggle_fanatic

Just a typical Wizard, trying to learn about Muggles. Gryffindor. Hogwarts Alumni. Ministry of Magic. Father of seven.

Devon, England, UK

Joined July 2013

End of Part 1. Part 2 is where the story really kicks off.


	2. The Phone

Part 2: The Phone

Arthur Weasley continues to work in the office for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. Several muggle artifacts are filled in his basement; such as typewriters, light bulbs, plugs, etc. He always has found Muggles fascinating. There is a new "artifact" he has found in his office, an iPhone 5. Whenever he comes across these artifacts at work, he is allowed to bring it home to do what he wishes with.

(At the Burrow)

Arthur is charging the phone with a plug. He even managed to install an outlet in his basement. His wife Molly walks into to the basement.

"Arthur, are you in there dear?" Molly asks.

"Over here Molly, working on this thing called a smart phone." Arthur responds.

"Well put it down. You can work on that confounded piece of junk later. It's dinner time. Ron and Hermione are here with the kids." Molly snaps at him.

"Oh fine darling, I'm coming up." Arthur puts down the phone to greet his son and daughter-in-law.

End of Part 2. Part 3 will be up at some point within the next week or so. Please read and review. How do you think Arthur is going to use social media?


	3. Family Time

Part 3: Family Time

Arthur comes out of his basement to greet his visiting family.

"Hello Ron." Arthur greets his son giving him a handshake.

"Hey dad." Ron responds.

"How's the shop going? George said you two were planning on opening another one." Arthur inquires.

"Yeah, we are. Somewhere near Cambridge. One in Diagon Alley got too crowded. Made enough to get a second store. Call it franchising." Ron explains.

"Well good for you Ron. I'm sure it'll be a great success." Arthur congratulates.

"Thanks dad." Ron says.

"Hi Arthur, how are you?" Asks his daughter-in-law, Hermione, who gives him a hug.

"I'm good and how are you, Hermione?" Arthur asks, hugging Hermione back.

"I'm good. Just typical work at the Ministry. I can assume the same for you." Hermione responds.

"What do you mean by that?" Arthur asks.

"Well mum said you were in the basement working on an "artifact" you got from your office." Ron answers in an almost sarcastic tone.

"She wasn't lying." Arthur responds.

"Well what is it? Maybe I can help you with it?" Hermione asks.

"Hermione, please. Don't encourage him. He's been down there since he got back from work." Molly protests.

"Alright then, maybe we'll look at it after dinner. Let's check on the kids." Ron suggests.

They all go into the kitchen to see Hugo and Rose in the kitchen table, playing a toy.

"Grandpa!" The two of the yelp, jumping into Arthur's arms, knocking him back slightly.

"Oof! How are you two?" Arthur asks.

"We're great, grandpa!" Hugo answers.

"That's what I like to hear." Arthur responds.

Molly puts a Shepard's pie on the table, and everyone sits down to eat.

"So dad, what were you working on in the basement?" Ron asks, causing Molly to roll her eyes.

"I found this thing called an iPhone. Like little black slab, it needs electricity to work I guess." Arthur answers.

"I don't know if that's a good idea for you to keep Arthur. I know this may sound bad, but Muggles aren't really known for using their phones wisely." Hermione responds in an informative tone.

"Is that right?" Arthur asks.

"Well put it this way. When we were at my parents house last week, they talked about how fascinating it was that Hugo and Rose don't play on their phones all dead eyed like they've seen other children." Hermione explains.

"Are you serious?" Molly asks her curiously.

"Oh yeah. They're as fascinated with magic as dad is with Muggles. They wanna know more, but there's only so much we can expose them to." Ron replies.

"Well after dinner, maybe I could give them a call on this new phone. I'd like to start a conversation with them about it." Arthur explains.

"Very well Arthur. You can play with that damn thing all you want." Molly groans.

End of Part 3. Please read and review. Next chapter is going to be Arthur talking to Hermione's parents about the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. That oughta be fun.


	4. I'd Be Careful With That

Part 4: I'd Be Careful With That

After dinner is finished, Molly is finishing the dishes. Rose and Hugo are in the living room with a plate of mini pies that Molly had made for them. Ron and Hermione are following Arthur down to the basement, where they eye many Muggle other artifacts.

"Bloody hell dad, you're a hoarder." Ron quips.

"What does Molly think of this Arthur? I'm amazed she hasn't told you to clear all this stuff out of here." Hermione comments.

"Ron, you've been done here before. You know that I have gotten rid of some stuff. Molly has seen me clean out the basement over the years. The stuff I do keep is stuff that seems extra special. I do what the Muggles call, a spring cleaning." Arthur explains.

"That actually makes a lot of sense." Hermione says, knowing Arthur is right.

"Anyway, here is the iPhone. I think it working now. It has been on this plug all day." Arthur guides the couple to a work bench. Hermione looks at the phone knowing how to use it, given her Muggle background.

"Here, I'll show you how to make a call to my parents. You can even save their phone number if you want to call them easier." Hermione explains before entering the phone numbers for Thomas and Jean Granger.

"Hermione what's the difference between a home phone and a mobile?" Arthur asks Hermione curiously.

"Well a home number is for the telephone in their house. The mobile is each of their cell phones. Mobile phones are the phones that Muggles keep on them the whole time." Hermione explains.

"I don't get it. If they have their cell phones on them the whole time, why even bother having a home phone?" Ron asks, surprisingly valid considering it's a question from him.

"That's one thing even I don't have the answer to. It's surprising how many Muggles other than my parents do that. I think it's either the aesthetic of having an older phone or they just don't care enough to get rid of it." Hermione tries her best answering Ron's question. It is one of the few times in her life that she is stumped on a question.

"Well I guess it doesn't matter, so long as I can call your parents." Arthur comments, before dialing the phone to Hermione's mom's cell.

"Hello?" Jean Granger answers her phone.

"Hello, is this Jean Granger?" Arthur responds.

"Um yes? Who's calling?" Jean asks, wondering who is calling her.

"Oh sorry, this is Arthur. Ron's dad." Arthur explains, clearing the air.

"Oh, Arthur! Good to talk to you. It's been a while. How are you and Molly?" Jean asks, changing tones, now knowing who it is.

"We're good actually, we're actually here with Ron and Hermione right now. I found this phone I have at work and she showed me how to call you." Arthur's explains to Jean.

"Found the phone at work? What is your department again, Arthur?" Jean asks, curious to know how a wizard would come across a smart phone.

"I work in the office for Misuse if Muggle Artifacts. There are lots of Muggle items that come through my office every day. This just happened to be one of those items." Arthur explains.

"You're interested in 'Muggles', eh? I think Ron mentioned that. What do you want to know?" Jean asks.

"I wanna know about all the ways Muggles use these types of phones." Arthur informs her ecstatically.

"Well, we use this thing called social media. It's meant to be a way of talking to people through the phone, without actually being there. Unfortunately, it also makes us very anti-social at times. If you ever plan on using it, I'd be careful about how you use it. We can be just as cruel as wizards can." Jean tells Arthur, though it's more of a warning than advice.

"We have cruel wizards who say bigoted things. I can assume that Ron and Hermione told you who Voldemort and Grindelwald are." Arthur responds.

"They did. But do me a favor, when using the internet. Look up Adolf Hitler, Christopher Columbus, and Osama bin Laden. I think you'll be in for quite a shock." Jean warns him.

"Very well, I will do that. But I would like to know the names of the social medias you mentioned." Arthur responds.

"There is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I'd start with those." Jean tells him.

"Thank you Jean, I'll do that. And actually, if you wanna know anything about wizards, feel free to ask. Hermione said you were interested." Arthur says.

"She wasn't lying. Maybe I'll call you tomorrow, we can discuss it then. Goodbye Arthur." Jean says.

"Goodbye Jean." Arthur says. Jean ends the call, as Arthur has yet to truly figure out how his new phone works.

"Well? Satisfied?" Hermione asks him.

"Relatively satisfied. She did tell me to be careful using the social medias though." Arthur informs Hermione.

"Well that's good dad. Well I think we should head home Hermione. It's too quiet upstairs, kids are probably falling asleep." Ron tells Hermione.

"Quite right, Ronald. Well good night Arthur." Hermione gives Arthur a hug and Ron gives Arthur a handshake.

"Have a good one son." Arthur waves to his son leaving the house.

"Night dad." Ron waves back.

After Ron and Hermione leave with the kids, Molly walks down to the basement.

"How's it go showing them your new toy?" Molly asks Arthur sarcastically.

"It went fine, Molly. Hermione's mother even warned about some of the dangers on the Internet and social medias as the Muggles call it. I'll be careful." Arthur reassures her.

"Whatever you say, dear. Whatever you say."

Molly walks back up the stairs.

End of Part 4. I named her Jean because that is Hermione's middle name. It just made sense. Part 5 will be up within the next couple weeks. That will involve Arthur setting up profiles on social media, much to his family's dismay. Please read and review. I hope you guys like the story so far.


	5. Setting Up

Part 5: Setting Up

Arthur wakes up the following morning and proceeds to go onto his phone and go to the App Store to download various social media sites. Molly is none too pleased about this when she walks down to see Arthur playing on the phone, almost like a zombie.

"Bloody hell, Arthur! Can't you find something else to do with your time?!" Molly asks him irritated.

"Molly. This is fascinating stuff. Trust me, I'll you show you all of it later." Arthur counters.

"Grr. Why do I even bother?" Molly says to herself under her breath, walking back upstairs.

Arthur gets back at it setting up an email so he can connect it with his Facebook and Twitter.

"Hmmm. Profile picture? What to use?" Arthur asks himself. Before having a realization.

"I got it. Molly, could you come back down here please?" Arthur asks politely.

"Yes Arthur?" Molly asks trying not to sound annoyed.

"Can we get a picture together for this, profile?" Arthur asks.

"Um, sure? But how?" Molly asks confused.

"The phone has camera in it. I can hold it up and we take a picture of ourselves." Arthur enthusiastically explains.

"How do these Muggles come up with stuff like this with out magic?" Molly is almost beside herself.

"No idea, dear." Arthur quips.

Arthur and Molly stand together, Arthur puts the phone in selfie mode, he takes a burst of about 20 photos.

"Alright, let's see how they turned out." Arthur and Molly looks at the pictures, but Molly doesn't seem impressed.

"Why aren't the pictures moving?" Molly asks dully.

"This is a Muggle thing, their pictures don't move." Arthur explains, scrolling through the pictures.

"Here, this is a nice one." Molly finds a picture she likes for Arthur's profile. Arthur looks at her in agreement.

"I agree. Thank you, dear." Arthur kisses Molly in the cheek and uploads the picture to his profiles, finishing them.

"Here, Molly. These are the profiles I set up." Arthur shows Molly the profiles he created for himself.

"So, what do you do with this?" Molly asks.

"I can write about my thoughts. If I get people to "connect" to my profile. They can like it and I can what they, how the Muggles say 'post'." Arthur explains.

"Don't "post" everything you think, dear. Please, there might be Muggles out there who take what you say as crazy talk. And I don't think you can write about what happens among wizards." Molly cautions Arthur.

"I was already cautioned by Hermione's and her family. I won't go too out of control with this. I promise." Arthur reassures.

End of Part 5. I know this took a while to get up, but life has been busy for lately. I'm also working on two other stories right now. Hopefully Part 6 won't take as long for me to right. That's going to go into Arthur posting, and the reactions of the people both around him and online. Please read and review. Happy reading!


	6. Starting the Posts

Part 6: Starting the Posts

July 4, 2013: What is this Independence Day I hear about? Is it for American Muggles only?

July 5, 2013: These firework things, how exactly do they work with no magic?

July 10, 2013: I noticed some of you are starting to think that I'm crazy. I just want to say that it seems very inappropriate to judge innocent questions.

July 17, 2013: How do I change the profile picture and add photos again? I forgot. Your Muggle technology is still new to me.

July 20, 2013: Good to be spending family vacation time in Egypt again. 20 years to the date since the last trip.

July 24, 2013: Curious to know why Muggles come of age at 18 and not 17. Just a thought.

July 31, 2013: Happy birthday to my son-in-law, Harry Potter. Wish you and Ginny all the happiness in the world.

End of Part 6. I know this is a short chapter and it took longer than I wanted, but I've been busy with life and the other stories I'm writing. Not sure when I'll update this next but be patient and happy reading.


	7. The Comments

Part 7: The Comments

Molly was looking at Arthur, who was looking at his post online sullenly.

"Arthur, what's wrong dear?" Molly asks, concerned about him.

"It's just a post I put on the app Twitter. The things people say in response to this. It's obscene." Arthur explains.

Arthur shows Molly a post he made.

_Question, how exactly do your vaccinations work?_

Molly sees the post and sighs.

"Well if they're insulting you for asking questions about Muggles, what did you think was gonna happen? There's was always the chance they think you're a loony." Molly states.

"No, no, no. It's not that. It's just the things they say to each other." Arthur corrects.

"What do you mean?" Molly asks curiously.

"Take a look." Arthur holds up the phone and Molly is shocked when she reads the plethora of comments.

_Vaccines are bullshit, it's the system mind controlling us._

_Fuck you ya retard. Vaccines are backed by science._

_Y'all are probably just 12 year old pussies._

_You're all a bunch of stupid cunts, just vaccinate your fucking kids._

Molly hands the phone back to Arthur as she can't bear to read anymore.

"I've been around Muggles before and none of them have ever spoken to me that way." Molly says, disgusted by what she had just read.

"Even the DURSLEY'S were not this rude when I first met them. And I almost broke their electric fireplace." Arthur adds.

"Why would they say this on the Twitter if anyone can see it?" Molly asks.

"I don't know." Arthur says.

"And the vaccines? What are those?" Molly asks.

"Apparently it's a type of medicine that you give to children so they don't get sick in the first place. I was curious about how they worked. And those were the responses I got." Arthur explains.

"Well I doubt any of the rude little bastards who said those things are doctors." Molly quips.

"I think I find a doctor on the Internet, I'll ask him how it works. Nobody else seems to be able to give me a straight answer." Arthur says.

"That's probably for the best. Maybe ask somebody on the Internet who is in any Muggle field personally. The Twitter thing is worse than Facebook." Molly states.

"I second that." Arthur says.

He then logs off of Twitter to find a doctor online that he can asks.

End of Part 7. Sorry it took so long to update, but I had so much going on in my life. I was also working on other stories. I needed to motivate myself to write another chapter of this. This is the only real time I intend to use vulgarity in a Harry Potter story. Until the next update, happy reading!


	8. This Was a Mistake

Part 8: This Was a Mistake

It has been months now, Arthur has been on social media. Today is the day where he says enough. Molly walks down into the basement to see him on his phone.

"What are are you doing down here?" She asks curiously.

"This was a mistake, Molly. I should've heeded Hermione's warning about this." Arthur states sullenly.

"Why do you say that? You seemed to be having fun using this Muggle stuff."

"And I DID have fun... at first. But then I saw what some would call the 'dark side' of the Muggle Internet. I mean some of the things I've read these Muggles write and hear them say, it's worse than ANYTHING Lucius Malloy ever said to us." Arthur rants.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, and I'm sorry it didn't work the way you thought." Molly says, sympathetically placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Me too. But maybe I could treat this a learning experience about how the Muggle mind works. But, I'm done with it. Maybe I'll some other Muggle hobby, hopefully one that isn't so divisive."

"That's the spirit dear."

After about an hour, Arthur deletes all his social media accounts. Knowing the phone's battery will eventually die, he just leaves in a drawer in the basement.

He joins Molly upstairs, choosing spend time with his wife.

_End of the Story. Honestly, I don't think I could've done any better with the story. It sounded better in my head, plus I have other stories that I am putting a lot of though into. The next time I make a Harry Potter story, hopefully it will be better than this._


End file.
